Category Archives: Horticulture 101

My horticulture teacher Dan shared with the class a way that professionals grow trees and bushes in nurseries. It’s called pot-in-pot and involves growing the tree in a plastic pot. Another slightly larger pot is sunk in the ground and the pot with the tree is put inside the larger pot.

The advantages are these:

Protection from the extremes of heat and cold. The soil temperature is much more moderate. The two pots fit fairly tightly so there is not much air infiltration from the top pot to the bottom.

Drainage – water drains out of the top pot into the bottom pot. The bottom pot has one drainage hole and I noticed that there is space below the pot for water to drain.

Easy to water – the schools systems uses drip irrigation above ground which does not freeze and break. Their biggest problem are rabbits which chew on the plastic.

Roots have a harder time leaving the pot and establishing themselves in the surrounding soil. Some pots even have rollers so that you can turn the pot every month or so to break off any wandering roots.

I will try this system out with some of my trees and plants which are a bit invasive. Pipevine, common milkweed and paw paw all want to spread out and this system should keep them in check.

I have located a source for these pots at Hummerts, but they don’t sell them individually. The item # is 14-9702. The problem is that they don’t sell them individually and they are quite expensive. The largest Grip Lip containers cost $10 to $15 each and the cheaper liner costs a bit less. The school uses two different size pots 19″ wide x 15″ deep and 15″ wide x 12″ deep. I’m going to try a large-box store solution and will add it to the post later. Theoretically, I could even use a 5 gallon bucket, drill in holes in the bottom for drainage, paint it brown and use it as my in-ground pot. My instructor also mentioned that I might be able to get some old pots from a nursery that are being sent for recycling.

Here are my notes from class and things I’ve learned which might be helpful to myself and others.

Bring a backpack, #2 pencil and a hat. For labs you will have to leave the classroom so you may want to leave laptops home that day.

The books for this class are expensive! This class costs $392 for a four credit class. The two required books cost $321! Amazon does have the one book cheaper at $133 and I found a prior edition from bn.com for $10. You can guess which one I bought.

The syllabus I was given says that “older editions will work.” That’s a good tip to remember – talk to the professor, before you buy your books and find out what his suggestions are with regards to books.

Most of the roots of a plant only go down 18 inches. On a tree you want to be able to see the root flair. That’s the curve at the base. On most trees you buy the root flair will be covered. You need to take off the top layer of dirt so that you can see the flair/curve.

To go in and add a layer of top soil on top of tree roots will smother the roots. The volcano of mulch around a tree prevents water from getting to the soil. You only need an inch of mulch around a tree and plants. You don’t need mulch around a mature tree.

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8/29/13

BT Genes are in corn – called BT Corn – bad for butterflies? other insects? Apparently some corn is still being infected.

Botany is scientific study of plants Horticulture is the science/art of cultivating and using fruits , veg’s and other plants.

Don’t do mono-cultures in your gardening. Trees and plants can get wiped out. All the ash trees on the arch grounds are going to die because of ash borer. They only plant one variety. Apparently they are going to make the same mistake again in the new plans.